Colorado Eagles have backs against the wall after Game 5 loss

Eagles lose two of three at home, trail Idaho 3-2

The Colorado Eagles are backed into a corner and they have nobody to blame but themselves.

Colorado had a chance to seize a choke hold on the its first-round series against Idaho with three games at home, but it was the Steelheads who capitalized, winning their second straight game Friday night in hostile territory 2-1 and grabbing a commanding 3-2 series lead.

Idaho spoiled the Eagles' homecoming by winning two of the three games at the Budweiser Events Center to return to Boise needing just one win in two games to send the Eagles packing for the second consecutive year.

What's worse is Colorado looked rather disinterested to start.

The Eagles were out-shot for the first time in the series and gave up six power plays, including two 5-on-3's.

Colorado's biggest saving grace was the return of starting goalie Marc Cheverie from injury, giving his club a chance in his first game action since March 28. However, the Eagles' offense had very little to offer in return, scoring just once on a goal in the final 3 seconds of the game.

"We came out a little flat and that's been kind of something we've struggled with throughout the year," said Cheverie, who stopped 29-of-31 shots. "I think if we would have played a 60-minute effort we would have seen a better result. It's a million dollar question. If you could show up every time, a lot of us would be in the NHL.

Advertisement

"I wish I could put a finger on it. If I could I think I would tell the team right away, but I don't know."

For all their effort in the third, it was Idaho not the Eagles to inflict damage, scoring the eventual game-winner 5 minutes into the final frame.

Once more Idaho found the back of the net first nearly 16 minutes into the opening period — the fourth time in five games and third straight contest.

The Steelheads' chance was born from a bad offensive turnover by Colorado, which led to an Idaho breakaway at the other end. Cheverie turned aside the shot, but his defense didn't do its job to clear the puck and Idaho held possession long enough to find a crack.

Forward Brett Robinson circled back inside and let loose a deadly accurate wrister to the top right corner to give the Steelheads a 1-0 lead.

It was the beginning of a role reversal of sorts as the Eagles had dominated in both shots and offensive chances in the first four games. Not so much in Game 5.

Colorado mustered just three total shots in the entire first period and eight in the second, while Idaho put 26 pucks on net through two frames. If not for Cheverie's solid outing between the pipes, the Eagles could have found themselves in serious trouble before the game's final period.

"For whatever reasons I'm not getting the right mixture out of them; I'm not getting the right player combinations or whatever it is," Eagles coach Chris Stewart said. "The fact of the matter is to get to four (wins). We win two games, that's it. I don't think that's unreasonable."

Idaho goalie Josh Robinson wasn't tested often, but was strong in his return to net after being benched in favor of Pat Nagle in Game 4.

The series returns with Game 6 in Idaho on Monday (7:10 p.m.), with Colorado needing a victory to force a deciding Game 7 on Tuesday.

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.